The End
by FallenPride
Summary: But never let it be said that the Tauri lacked bravery and courage. [Gen, no real warnings, though spoilers for S9]


**Disclaimer:** If wishes were horses...  
**Genre:** Gen  
**Characters:** The Tauri  
**Raiting:** PG-13 (for implied, but never detailed, violence)  
**Notes:** It's sort of been collecting dust on my computer, and I thought I would share it since I seem to be lacking some serious insperation for Lasting Bonds and I'm terrified about introducing Emily to Once and Only. Hope you enjoy the story anyway, though there is no real character involved (if you read it, you'll understand what I mean).

* * *

When they finally came for them they were unprepared. For more than ten years they had managed to be saved in the nick of time, for more than ten years they had always been able to pull some ace, or rabbit, or miracle out of their hats and save the day. The near legendary luck of the SGC, and more specifically SG-1, had finally run out. The TokRa had been destroyed, the Jaffa Nation had been beaten into bloody submission, the Lucian Alliance was nothing more than a few scattered ships, and the Asguards had been successfully fended off. None of the powerful alliances that they had made with powerful species and peoples would defend them. And the Ancients were still utterly silent since Orilin's return. 

When the Priors and their ships finally came there was nothing that Earth could do to hold them back. They had no powerful weapons at their disposal that could take out one of those massive space crafts. There was no technology lying around that could push them back and make them think twice. There were no words that could make them change their minds. There was nothing. No last lines, no last minute plans. No miraculous saves that pull them from the brink of destruction that was awaiting them.

When they finally came for them they came with over a dozen ships and thousands of soldiers. Earth was vastly out gunned, nearly out numbered, and severely lacked the type of zealot nature that the warriors of the Ori had in abundance. They came with an ultimatum – accept Origin and bow to the Ori or face destruction.

But never let it be said that the Tauri lacked bravery and courage.

They were a brave and stubborn people. They were not easily backed into a corner. And when they were they fought back with a vicious, ruthless determination. They had spent many thousands of years as slaves to a false god. And while the enslavement was long before human memory, something of their fight for freedom at that time was passed on in their blood. Some of that courage from that time only grew stronger as the generations continued. Something of that terrible fight for freedom and the willingness to die for it was fostered in the hearts of many Tauri.

While their world leaders negotiated for time and leeway for those who refused to follow, armies were amassed. Countless men and women from almost every country in the world was brought together and briefed about their situation, probably not in its entirety but enough to let them know what they were fighting for. And bravely did these soldiers take to the field, the air, the sea, and space. They were playing for time.

Time to allow the evacuations to take place.

Three days they were given. Three days to prepare for a battle they had no hope to win. Three days to save as many lives as they could. Three days to say their good-byes. Three days to make peace with the lives they had lived and the world they had created.

And on the forth day they showed the Priors, their followers, the Ori, and the Ancients, that the Tauri of Earth would bow down to no false gods ever again.

They fought in the sky, great and powerful space ships doing battle. But the vessels of Earth were out numbered. Three ships they had. Three great ships against seventeen. They were able to destroy one Prior ship before the first line fell under the greater power of weapons. And below the citizens of Earth cried out as the flaming wreckage littered the skies above.

And when the Ancient Chair in Antarctica was brought to life, the drones that were left were released into the sky with the planet's supply of nuclear weapons. Deadly beacons of hope they were, twisting through the atmosphere towards their targets. Their second line nothing more than raw determination to keep the battle in the air and off the untainted land below.

Four more ships they brought crashing down, damaging two more before the second line was depleted. A cheer rose up from the Tauri at the small victory. Even as they fought a hopeless battle they had determined that they would take with them as many of their enemy as they could. And the remaining Prior ships advanced. Descending slowly towards their goal, their path filled with the still burning ashes of their own companions and the fallen heroes of the first lines.

And the third line met their approach. Fighter jets, bombers, air planes, even a rocket that had originally been bound for the moon, took to their air to bombard the remaining vessels. Brave men, and brave women – selfless souls all of them – unleashed their deadly cache of weapons. And when they saw that it would not be enough, that still the ships advanced and they were flying light for having depleted their stores of armaments turned their own crafts into their final weapons.

Those selfless heroes took down the two damaged ships, creating a catalyst that destroyed two more of the Prior vessels and damaged a third. And a broken hearted cry was torn from every throat. For the small victory, and for the painful sacrifice.

And when the fight finally came to the earth it was the Priors and their followers who were unprepared. Unprepared for the stubborn determination they found, for the hate and vengeance written across the faces of those they attacked. Unprepared for the fact that if the Tauri were to fall, they would not fall without a fight. They would not relinquish their freedom with hardly a whimper. They would go out with a bang, with a scream so loud that no one would fail to hear it.

The forces of Earth rose up against their aggressors like a crushing, unbroken wave.

They fought with a mother's savagery in the defence of her child – chilling and ruthless, taking no prisoners and dispensing no mercy. They took to the streets, to the fields and mountains, down the rivers and lakes, and out to sea. They did not wait for their enemy to come to them; they brought the violence to their enemy. They were outmatched with inferior weaponry, and nearly out numbered.

The Tauri of Earth never once gave ground without blood, and they made it costly to their enemy to take even a small piece of land and advance. For the Tauri had everything to lose – their lives, their families and friends, their homes, and their planet – and more to gain in winning. But while the Tauri had their desire to keep their freedom or die free on their side, the Priors had spread the message to their followers that the Ori would see them victorious. And men with their gods on their side will fight all the more ferociously believing they are destroying an evil spawned by the enemies of their gods.


End file.
